Google eBooks-Integrated E-reader Out On Sunday

minutetraders sends word of an announcement from Google. Quoting: "Starting this coming Sunday, July 17, the iriver Story HD e-reader will be available for sale in Target stores nationwide and on Target.com. The iriver Story HD is the first e-reader integrated with the open Google eBooks platform." It appears iriver has released source for the GPL components on the device, unlike the last time around.

Comments

Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed

[shutdown -p now]

As someone who also mostly reads books in bed, it's hard to beat physical "next/previous page" buttons conveniently located on the edge of the device (as in Kindle). Swiping the screen requires moving the thumb, whereas with buttons you can hold your fingers on "next" and just push as you need.

("too lazy?" hell yes, that's why I read books in bed in the first place!)

Re:No Thank You

[Inner_Child]

Funny, I've been using Linux to check out e-books from my local library for several months, at least. And B&N's DRM is just as easily defeatable as the ADEPT scheme. Please don't bother posting ignorant comments unless you've bothered to do a rudimentary search first. Hell, the page where you get the info for removing B&N DRM? It's the same as for removing ADEPT! Not to mention there are plugins for Calibre that make it a simple matter of dragging and dropping the DRMed files into Calibre, and getting wonderful DRM-free files out the other side, nicely organized, too.

Re:As someone who mostly reads books in bed

[TheGratefulNet]

I have both a kindle2 and regular touchscreen tablets/phones/etc.

the finger swipe is 'cool' but you know, its tiring and not all that efficient.

kindle got it right. I hate giving amazon credit but they got it right.

Kobo touch beat it to market for less

[Rashkae]

Unfortunately for Google E-books, Kobo has already released the Touch. It took the compnay 3 tries, but they finally got it right. You can tap the side of the page to turn page (Sony requires a swipe if you use the touch screen, which does becomes tiresome by comparison.)

You probably won't see it on display models, (unfortunately), but with the new firmware update, it also allows you to install your own fonts, (as well as a built in selectoin of 5), as well as the ability to adjust page margins and line height to your comfort. And it sells for less.... so yeah, this device is too little too late.

sorry, don't want my page-by-page reading stored

[The_Laughing_God]

After a year of increasing interest, I'll be buying a reader or tablet this week. I almost pulled the trigger 3x this weekend, but each time found a better deal on a better model -- though ultimately, *any* of the the three, in hand by the end of next week, will be adequate

I was excited to read about this release. It felt like a serendipitous alignment until I realized that I wouldn't have actual possession of ANY file, just a 'service' feeding me a page at a time -- and Google is quite clear that it logs each page I read and when (it touts this as a feature, saying they record it so I can pick up on the same page of each of my ebooks on any other device).

Do I want to be cut off from all my eBooks in wifi or wireless outage? No. That's when I'll want a book or manual most --- during an outage, in a plane, in the woods, in a lab or shielded room... Do I want anyone monitoring and recording exactly what pages I read or re-read and how often, tech or fiction? Nope.

I'm amazed /.ers take this so lightly

So much for serendipitous fortune. This reader is off my list, until it's hacked to keep Google OUT unless invited

features I'm waiting for

[bcrowell]

Features I'm waiting for before I buy an e-book reader:

1. I'm not touching anything with DRM, because any book I buy with DRM is virtually guaranteed to be unreadable in four years.

2. A decent selection of books.

3. Good support for books with equations in them.

Iriver apparently fails #1. The WP article on google ebooks says it's touted as open, but actually uses DRM.

A quick search for books by an author I like shows that only a small fraction of his books are available, so fail on #2 as well.

All epub-based formats basically fail #3. Dunno about the formats supported by google ebooks.

Re:features I'm waiting for

[jtownatpunk.net]

Ya know, I dislike DRM as much as the next guy (actually way more than most next guys since I know what it is and what it represents) but, at some point, you're just going to have to get over it and remove the DRM from whatever you decide to purchase. Once a DRM scheme is standardized, The Man is locked into a specific method of protection which can be easily bypassed.

1) DRM exists and it's not going away any time soon. What the smart consumer wants is fast adoption within the industry so hackers can get busy making tools to circumvent the chosen "protection" ASAP. Removing the DRM from my ePub purchases takes all of several seconds per title. After that, I can use Calibre to convert it to any format I want so I can move it to new platforms in the future. Beats the hell out of refusing to move forward because the path isn't laid out exactly the way I want.

2) If you don't mind pirating, you can find just about every popular book available online for free. The lack of popular titles in online storefronts is the fault of back-asswards publishers who think they're selling paper rather than content. If they won't pull their heads out, buy a paperback copy and download a pirated version. At least the author is still getting their miniscule cut of the action if you do that. I've even found a few particularly popular titles which have better pirated ebooks than legitimate ebooks because fans have taken the time to do a good job with the layout.

3) Layout is something you'll have to take up with the publishers. Until they pull their heads out, there will be problems in this area. Also, the current generation of dedicated book readers don't have the pixel density necessary to properly simulate a printed page. Until you start seeing pixel counts that match what you get on a laser printer, it will be difficult to create ebooks that look as good as the printed versions without significantly reducing the amount of content on the page. The FORMAT is not the problem. It's the lack of effort put into creating a proper LAYOUT that looks good on the available readers. All of the major formats are quite capable of being used to present a quality reading experience when an effort is made to design a presentation that is tailored to the output device. Shit in, shit out. It doesn't matter what format publishers use if they don't make a proper effort to create a layout that looks good on the final output device.

Also, DRM doesn't have a darn thing to do with being "open". All sorts of "open" projects involve encryption and access controls. I don't know where people get the idea that a project or product can't be considered open if it involves controlling data access and distribution.